Best Free Ecommerce Framework

Open source project, you can contribute to the development and implementation of new functions. a large number of script, and there are good reasons for this. In addition to being free, open source platform is much easier to maintain than proprietary projects. You can fix bugs at any time and add new functional. This greatly reduces the cost of self-management of ecommerce project, especially for startups with limited budgets

An ecommerce platform is an easy-to-use software resource that enables you to sell products and services on the internet. It is a vital aspect of any successful business formation, especially a new one. The best part about ecommerce platforms is that they are able to provide professional-looking storefronts without having to break the bank. We’re here to help you find the best ecommerce platforms so you can get your business online with ease.

I know you have been looking for a free ecommerce platform, free shopping cart, free open source ecommerce or even open source ecommerce framework. We have done that work for you in this article. From this article you will get the complete information and analysis of best open source ecommerce platform 2021-2025 and all the alternatives are mentioned with Free ecommerce Platforms, and top Free Ecommerce Platforms for your small business, shop or online store.

Building an online store has never been easier thanks to the ecommerce platforms that are on the market today. These platforms are similar to content management systems, but focus specifically on creating and managing an online store for your business. Best Free Ecommerce Framework is a free ecommerce platform that anyone can use to build their own custom catalog and shopping cart. Here are some features for these products:

Shopping Cart

This is an integral part of any eCommerce store, the shopping cart. This is where your end consumers store their products to continue with the checkout process. A flexible cart allows both the guest user and registered user to checkout. In comparison, the guest checkout does not require the user to sign up on the site, hence making the process faster.

Payment Gateway Integrations

A good eCommerce website gives you the option of integrating with diverse payment gateways by not limiting your choices to a selected few. It is an integral feature of eCommerce websites that can make or break the customer experience. Shiprocket 360 comes with pre-approved payment gateways that you can easily integrate with your online store.

Order Management

A wholesome order management panel simplifies the merchants’ task to get the deed information regarding buyer cancellation, refunds, COD order verification, exchange order status update, and more. The panel helps the merchant manage his order fulfillment and oversee the completion of the same.

Security

This feature is one of the most important feature as it ensures that no crucial data such as credit card information is saved and for all prepaid shipments the checkout is carried out through a secure payment gateway. The passwords are hashed and not stored in a readable format. All web pages should be protected by SSL. The servers are secure and protected using state of the art services.

Scalable Infrastructure

Your hosting infrastructure should be able to scale as you get more and more traffic. A higher latency leads to drops in transaction rates and leads to loss of marketing dollars. CDN should be used to improve the website’s performance and to manage the products online. It also provides excellent uptime, ensuring that the website is readily available everywhere and at any time.

Mobile Compatibility

Great eCommerce websites usually offer three types of solutions for mobile compatibility. First is ensuring that the mobile view is responsive and properly accommodated according to the device. The WAP is a mobile-specific template which optimizes the website in size and generates less loading time. API’s for building mobile apps is essential since everyone now likes to browse via phones. It is one of the most relevant features of eCommerce websites as it drives engagement and visits on a relatively large channel.

Reports and Analytics

The reports should be available as exports which contain detailed information regarding the orders, customer database, and product reports in terms of catalogue. It is quite useful for analyzing the growth of the business. The websites should be pre-integrated with marketing tools and analytics to better market the brand and read reports about the performance of the store.

Logistics integration

Integrating logistics services allows not only seamless shipping but also ensures that the merchant and the consumer get real time courier updates along with order tracking capability. This allows the user to manage shipments from the same panel instead of approaching the courier partners separately.

Shiprocket is a platform that can help you with shipping across 26000+ pin codes, at the cheapest rates starting from Rs. 22/500g. The best part is that Shiprocket has integrations with 17+ courier partners. This gives you a wider pin code reach as compared to shipping with a single courier partner. Also, you can manage undelivered orders from an automated NDR panel that you find in the app. Furthermore, you get a customizable tracking page that gives the buyer a chance to give their feedback on undelivered orders and also take quick action on them.

Communications and Regular Updates

Provisions to send and receive timely notifications regarding your orders are available on the panel. This way a merchant can keep his customers informed about the status of the order and receive the same via the system.

Content Management Systems

Content Management System is used to manage the website content such as, Logo, banner, Footer links, Policies,  and Products from the back end itself.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform. It’s a completely free software that you can download and run on any web hosting provider.

Since WooCommerce doesn’t provide hosting for you, you’ll need to buy web hosting and a domain name to make sure your website can be accessed by users worldwide.

We recommend using either Bluehost or SiteGround. They are both among the largest hosting companies in the world and are officially recommended by WooCommerce.

Bluehost is even offering WPBeginner users a free domain name + SSL certificate, and a generous 60% discount on hosting. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

Pros

• It’s easy to get started with WooCommerce. You can create an online store quickly even if you’re a total beginner.
• You’ll be hosting your website yourself, which gives you full control. Although you’ll need to pay for WooCommerce hosting, but this doesn’t have to cost a lot.
• There are loads of WooCommerce themes (designs), giving you the opportunity to create a store that truly reflects your brand.
• There are thousands of WooCommerce plugins that you can use to add new features and grow your business.
• You can sell anything with WooCommerce whether its physical products, digital downloads, membership plans, dropshipping store, or affiliate products.
• WooCommerce doesn’t charge you any transaction fees at all. You’ll only have to pay your payment service provider like PayPal or Stripe, or your bank.

Cons

• If you’re a total beginner, WooCommerce is a bit trickier to get started with than some other options. You’ll need to buy hosting and a domain name, for instance.
• You’ll be responsible for maintaining your online store as it grows. This might mean upgrading your hosting plan or paying for a security plugin for WordPress.

To help beginners get started, we have the most detailed WooCommerce tutorial on the web that helps you build an eCommerce website with WooCommerce.

Web.com Website Builder

Web.com website builder doesn’t have a free plan, but it offers a very affordable plan that allows you to create an online store without spending a lot of money.

Web.com will host the store and even provide you with a free custom domain and free SSL certificate.

You’ll be able to have up to 500 products in your store, accept credit cards, track & manage your orders, link to Facebook marketplace, and more.

Pros

• You can build an online store for with Web.com drag & drop website builder. You can get a free custom domain name of your choosing.
• You can sell both physical and digital products through your store. You can use Web.com to track your inventory.
• There’s 24/7 email and live chat support available.
• You can add a blog to your store’s website for free, though the blogging software is very basic and doesn’t offer the same features as a blogging platform like WordPress.
• Pricing is very affordable starting only at $3.95 per month for eCommerce plan.

Cons

• The eCommerce features are not as powerful as WooCommerce or Shopify.

BuyNow Plus

BuyNow Plus is not a full eCommerce platform. Instead, it lets you create “buy now” buttons that you can put on any website.

You’ll need to create a free Stripe account in order to use BuyNow Plus.

Pros

• The transaction fee is pretty low at just 2% per transaction. Keep in mind that Stripe charges its own transaction fees on top of this, though.
• You can use BuyNow Plus to handle recurring payments on credit cards without your customers needing to set up an account. If you’re selling recurring memberships for offline items, then this is a really handy feature.
• You can put the button links on social media as well as on your website, or you can even use them in emails.
• There’s no limit to how many different products you can sell using BuyNow Plus.

Cons

• BuyNow Plus doesn’t offer anything extra, like inventory tracking or website creation.
• You could do something similar by using Stripe directly on your website. That way, you wouldn’t need to pay BuyNow Plus’s transaction fee. You’d need your own SSL certificate, but it’s possible to get an SSL certificate for free.

 Square Online 

If you’re not particularly eager to join the Wix premium plan bandwagon, you might want to try out Square Online.

Now, for a long time, Square had fundamentally existed as a versatile payment solution. Until it finally decided to spread its wings by setting up a multi-faceted business ecosystem. You can read our full Square Online review.

So far, quite a number of people are aware that Square increasingly facilitates merchants dealing with physical businesses restaurants, coffee shops, and so forth. While that’s fairly accurate, it turns out that Square has now grown to be much more than that.

In essence, the platform offers a myriad of extensive features plus integrations that not only support brick and mortar businesses, but also ecommerce websites.

And no, we’re not only talking about digital payments here. But rather, the entire ecommerce framework.  Square offers tools for pretty much all the critical online store functions- from inventory management and sales, to marketing and team coordination.

All things considered, the most outstanding feature here is the ability to set up a fully-functional ecommerce website for free.

You don’t need to pay anything to build an online store. Not even for hosting. In fact, you can proceed without the slightest bit of knowledge about coding.

Creating free ecommerce websites with Square is as easy as 1-2-3. After you select an ideal theme from the array of predesigned customizable options, just make some tweaks, and voila!

Ultimately, you’ll achieve the full online store experience. And in case the default features happen to be inadequate, you can leverage Square’s integrations to link your free ecommerce website with third-party apps for booking and scheduling, employee and inventory management, accounting, plus much more.

But that’s not all. If you have some coding tricks up your sleeve, you can consider capitalizing on the Square Connect API to build your own specialized integrations.  Otherwise, it’s also possible to link free ecommerce sites with their corresponding offline brick and mortar counterparts. This feature alone is particularly handy for streamlined multi-store selling and product management.

That said, I can guess what you might be wondering at this point. How the heck does Square generate revenue from this?

Well, interestingly, there are no ecommerce web monthly plans on this platform. Not even one. Instead, it basically charges a fixed rate of 2.9% plus 30¢ for each online transaction. Therefore, ecommerce sites are genuinely free on a permanent basis.

Benefits of Square Online

• Setting up a complete ecommerce website is fairly easy. Simply download the online store app, install it into your computer, and then launch its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor to design a unique site for free.
• While building ecommerce sites is actually free of charge, the subsequent pricing framework is quite straightforward and favorable. You essentially get to pay 2.9% plus 30¢ when you start selling, which is admittedly reasonable compared to the standard transaction fees on other platforms.
• Square shares an exceedingly diverse ecosystem with third-party app integrations. You can take advantage of this to set up additional ecommerce website functionalities. Or otherwise, use the Square Connect API for your own unique integrations.
• If you have a decent social media following, you can consider extending your ecommerce site to sell items on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. Consequently, the entire inventory will be synced in real-time across all the sales channels for streamlined management.
• Square is a comprehensive selling platform that facilitates both online and offline selling.

Downsides of Square Online

• Although excluding comprehensive underwriting from the start makes it incredibly easy to build ecommerce sites, it turns out there’s a caveat. Square Online is apparently infamous for frequently holding funds over transactions it considers suspicious. The platform continues to do so in a bid to protect itself from possible online fraud.
• Square is only ideal when it comes to basic ecommerce websites. Due to the simple nature of its functionalities, you might find it difficult to create or run a complex online store. You can only do that on a dedicated ecommerce platform like WooCommerce.
• Square does not have an entirely reliable customer support system. Although it offers support through phone, social media and email, it mostly prefers using the latter two. Plus, the platform is yet to set up live chat support.

 Wix

Wix packs in a user-friendly website builder (similarly to Weebly or Squarespace) to help you create a website in one of two easy ways: with mere drag and drop or by using Wix’s ADI artificial intelligence designer. What’s more, you can even customize it greatly without knowing a thing about code.

Note: Wix is also a perfect store builder that will let you create an eCommerce website – but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to start selling to customers.

Free plan

• Online presence with free and secure web hosting
• Up to 500 MB bandwidth and up to 500 MB storage
• Hundreds of fully customizable templates, mobile-optimized website
• Access to an extensive collection of icons, images, clip art, and free apps
• Free Wix domain – (username.wixsite.com/siteaddress)
• Email marketing, SEO assistance, and other marketing tools

Free plan limitations

Your site address will carry the Wix favicon. Further, you’ll find Wix ads on every page. You cannot have a custom domain or change templates.

Most importantly, you cannot accept payments under the free plan. Again, while you can create your store for free, you need to pay once you’re ready to start selling.

Other key features

• Easy-to-use tools in a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor
• Assistance of Wix Artificial Design Intelligence to build personalized websites
• 500+ design templates covering any and every type of website
• Built-in tools to customize the design and layout
• Unlimited bandwidth and 10 GB storage
• Hassle-free coding for advanced functionality
• Mobile-friendly and SEO-friendly
• Google Analytics included
• Great ecommerce website builder

Among the free eCommerce platforms, Wix is ideal for websites that want everything taken care of and need only regular website features.

Price & transaction fees

The Premium plans start at $17 per month. There are three premium plans that are usable by small businesses, startups, and medium-sized eCommerce business owners – Basic, Unlimited, and VIP.

All these plans allow you to connect to your own domain and are ad-free. They vary in the amount of storage as well as the level of support and apps available. All three plans provide unlimited bandwidth.

While these business and eCommerce plans allow you to set up a store, accept payments, and view detailed Analytics, you’ll have to pick from their Unlimited or VIP business and eCommerce plans to get access to other advanced Wix Business applications, such as currency converter, automated sales tax, etc. They cost $25 and $35 per month, respectively.

Transaction fees:

Wix Payments lets Wix business and eCommerce plan subscribers accept card payments, digital wallets, and more without having to integrate third-party payment gateways.

It’s available only in some countries, and in the US, there’s a fee of 30¢ plus 2.9% for each transaction. It’s lower in EU countries, at 1.9% of the transaction amount + 0.30 EUR. These are similar to the fees that other payment processing software options charge.

What’s the Best Platform for Building an Ecommerce Website?

Although there are a number of seemingly dominant options you might have heard about, the ecommerce platform market is quite extensive. There are numerous options offering varying features, and some of them come with tools that have been optimized for specific types of stores.

Needless to say, there’s no ultimate platform for building an ecommerce website. Rather, the suitability of a platform depends on your particular needs.

Conclusion

Ecommerce is a groundbreaking new way of doing business, which has grown exponentially over the past several years. It has changed the way people buy and sell goods and services, as well as enabling more people than ever before to be successful entrepreneurs.

The best free ecommerce framework will offer several important features to users, such as the ability to set customized product categories for your store, as well as a built-in shopping cart system. If necessary, there should be options for upgrading later on if needed. Another feature that is important is a built-in checkout process that will allow customers to pay directly from their credit card or PayPal account.